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REPORT 



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WHITE UNION REFUGEES OF THE SOUTH. 



ST. LOUIS, MO: 




ROOMS WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION, NO. 10, NORTH FIFTH STREET. 
PRINTED BY R. P. STUDI.EY AND CO. 

1864. 




1 



REPORT 



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WHITE UNION REFUGEES OF THE SOUTH, 

THEIR PERSECUTIONS, SUFFERINGS, DESTITUTE CONDITION, 

AND THE NECESSITY OF GIVING AID AND RELIEF 

ON THEIR COMING TO OUR 

MILITARY POSTS. 



ST. LOUIS, MO: 

ROOMS WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION, NO. 10, NORTH FIFTH STREET, 
PRINTED BY R. P. STUDLEY AND CO. 

1864. 



REPORT 



®0 the (£lm$'tiM and humane people of the £Eopl States : 

During more than three years of the present civil war, the 
Western Sanitary Commission, besides its labors for the Armies of 
the West, the Navy of the Mississippi, and the Freedmen of the South, 
has been called to perform a work of humanity for the poor, des- 
titute, white, Union Refugees, from the insurrectionary States, 
and now begs leave to call a more particular attention to this branch 
of its labors, and to appeal to all Christian and humane people for 
aid, in clothing and money, to relieve the terrible destitution and 
suffering of these people, who are constantly arriving at our military 
posts in Missouri, and in this city, and casting themselves upon our 
charity. 

REFUGEES IN SAINT LOUIS. 

Since the commencement of the war there have arrived in Saint 
Louis many thousands of white, Union Refugees, from the troubled 
districts of Missouri, Arkansas ; Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mis- 
sissippi, Alabama, and Georgia .. The more energetic and capable 
of them have gone on to various parts of the Western States, many 
of whom we have aided with transportation. Another class, consist- 
ing almost entirely of helpless women and children, widows, 
orphans and half orphans, often sick or debilitated by disease, poorly 



clad and bare-footed, with a few bundles of bedding, on arriving 
here, having no friends to go to, have fallen upon the charity of the 
Commission and of the Government; for, having no residence here, 
they did not come within the range of the charitable institutions of 
the city. 

For nearly two years the Western Sanitary Commission provided 
a Refugee Home on Elm street, where, under the humane direction 
of the late John Cavender, Esq., the necessities of this class of 
persons were relieved. During this time, $3,800 in money, and a 
large amount of clothing, were obtained for them by the Commission, 
and a further sum of $15,000 was raised by an order of Major Gen- 
eral Halleck, assessing the wealthy secessionists of Saint Louis for 
this object; all of which was judiciously and faithfully expended by 
Mr. Cavendei:. 

In August, '63, there began to be further ai-rivals of destitute 
refugees from Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana 
and Texas. Many of them were women, with small children, 
poorly clad, often bare-footed, brought up the river on Govern- 
ment steamers, and landed here, without the means of procuring 
a place of shelter for a single night. Their husbands had been 
killed in the war, had been murdered by guerrillas, had been 
conscripted into the rebel army, or had died from the effects of 
exposure, in lying out in the woods, in dens and caves of the 
earth, to escape the blood-hounds of the rebel conscription. At 
first, these poor refugee families fell into the hands of the police, 
but the police station was not a fit place for them, although some 
of them found shelter there. ; 

One day, late in August, the /President of the Commission was 
called to see what could be done for a poor blind woman, and 
her family of six children, who had walked all the way from 
Arkansas to Rolla, Mo., her little children leading her several 
hundred miles by the hand, and from Rolla they had been brought 



on the cars to St. Louis as a charity. They were in an upper 
unfurnished room of the Pacific Hotel, the woman and a boy about 
twelve years old being sick, and she totally blind. They sat upon 
the floor, clothed in rags, and presented a sight that would have 
moved the stoutest heart to pity and to tears. 

The children of this woman, whose name was Mrs. Hargrave, 
were adopted by Rev. Dr. Eliot, and placed in the Mission school 
on Eighth street, and the mother was sent to the St. Louis Hos- 
pital, kept by the Sisters of Charity. Her youngest children she 
had never seen, they having been born since she became blind. 
The parting of the blind mother from her little ones was a touch- 
ing scene. But she gave them up willingly, knowing it to be a 
necessity, and for their good. At the Sisters' Hospital, her health 
after several months was restored, and by a surgical operation of 
Dr. Pope, the cataracts were removed from her eyes, and she was 
able to see. Her children were then brought to her, and the 
meeting can be better imagined than described. Quite recently 
this poor woman has died of consumption, after having been 
entirely restored to sight. 

A little later, another refugee mother came, and with two little 
children stood at the door of the Commission, on Fifth street, 
having no place to go. They were bare-footed, dusty with travel, 
and miserably clad. The mother told her sad story. 

Her husband had been murdered by guerrillas, near Fort Smith, 
Ark., and she had walked with her children to Rolla, riding part 
of the way in Government wagons, and had reached St. Louis as 
a place of refuge. She had to stay at the police station that night. 
The next day, three women and children arrived from Jackson, 
Tenn., in an equally destitute condition. There was no alternative 
but to open another refugee home. 

The President of the Commission rented the house, 39 Walnut 
street, for this purpose, on the 1st of September, 1863, and from 



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that date to September 1st, 1864, 322 men, 679 women, and 1163 
children, in all, 2164 white refugees, were sheltered and provided 
for, and many of them sent on their way to friends, or places of 
employment in the free States. By an arrangement with Generals 
Schofield and Rosecrans, rations and fuel were allowed from the 
Government, and the rent was paid by the Quartermaster; but the 
incidental expenses of the home, and the charities in clothing, money, 
&c, were provided by the Commission. 

This institution was conducted under the superintendence of 
the Secretary of the Commission, Rev. J. G. Forman, who, hold- 
ing a commission as Chaplain in the Army, and being assigned 
to this work by the Commanding General of the Department, has 
represented both the Government and the Commission. Larger 
accommodations being found necessary, the Government, early in 
the month of last June, appropriated a portion of the barracks at 
Camp Benton to this use, and set apart a hospital ward for the 
sick, at the request of the Commission. A new building is also 
in progress in the southern part of the city, for the accommoda- 
tion of two thousand persons, it being found desirable to bring 
all the destitute refugees, now subsisting on the Government at 
Springfield, Rolla, Pilot Knob, Cape Girardeau and elsewhere, to a 
central point, where they can be more easily sent to homes and 
places of employment; saving, also, the transportation of the 
rations now allowed to them, and bringing them under a better 
supervision than can otherwise be given.* 



•Since the above statement was written, the buildings, in process of erection and 
nearly completed, were accidentally burnt to the ground, and it is extremely doubtful 
whether the Government will undertake to rebuild them. This is a great calamity to 
the poor refugees, and to many destitute soldiers' wives and widows, for whom they 
were intended. It now only remains to make the best use of the rough buildings at 
Benton Barracks, which are a series of stables, originally erected as booths for horses 
and cattle at the Agricultural Fairs, and afterwards used for a time by the cavalry 
regiments for their horses. These have been further enclosed, floored, windows and 
stoves placed in them, and now make a tolerable shelter for these poor families, though 
far Irani comfortable. 



The number of destitute Union refugees received at Benton 
Barracks up to the present date (Oct. 26th, '64,) is 104 men, 222 
women, and 421 children, total 767, which, added to the number 
received and provided for at the Refugee Home in the city from 
September 1st, 1863, to September 1st, 1864, makes a total of 2931 
refugees assisted in connection with the labors of the Western 
Sanitary Commission during this period, not including those aided 
by Mr. Cavender's labors during the first year and a half of the war. 

The rations allowed by the Government to destitute Union refu- 
gees and freedmen's families, not able to provide for themselves, 
has been specially designated by an order of the War Department, 
as follows: 

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, 

Washington, January 25th. 1864. 
General Order, ) 

No. 30. ) 

The following is hereby established as the ration for issue by the Subsistence 
Department to adult refugees, and to adult colored persons, commonly called " con- 
trabands," when they are not employed at labor by the Government, and who may 
have no means of subsisting themselves, viz: 10 oz. of pork or bacon, or 1 lb. of 
fresh beef; 1 lb. of corn meal five times a week, and 1 lb. of flour or soft bread 
or 12 oz. of hard bread twice a week ; and to every 100 rations, 10 lbs. beans, peas, 
or hominy, 8 lbs. of sugar, 2 quarts of vinegar, 8 oz. of candles, 2 lbs. soap, 2 
lbs. of salt, and 15 lbs. of potatoes when practicable. To children under fourteen 
years of age, half rations will be issued ; and to women and children, roasted rye 
cofl'ee, at the rate of 10 lbs., or tea, at the rate of 15 oz. to every 100 rations. 

By order of the Secretary of War. 

E. D. TOWNSEND, 

Assistant Adjutant General. 

An order from the Head Quarters of the Department of the 
Missouri requires that the Chaplains, to whom the work of charity 
is usually assigned, shall confine it to those who, without this aid, 
would be " in danger of starvation ;" and that they should certify 
on the back of the provision returns that the persons drawn for 
are "unable to work." It also requires that the relief given should 
be " temporary," and not permanent. 



The whole number of refugees for whom transportation has 
been obtained from the Government, and from the railroads, and 
steamboats, by the Commission, to assist them to reach their friends, 
or places of employment, in the Western free States, from Oct. 
17th, 1863, to Oct, 25th, 1864, is 202 men, 493 women, and 682 
children, making a total of 1377 persons, besides many young 
children under four years of age, who passed without any fare 
being charged. 

hi performing this charity the Commission is greatly indebted to 
the North Mo. Railroad, whose President, Isaac Sturgeon, Esq., has 
given many free passes for refugees; to the Pacific Railroad, whose 
President, Geo. R. Taylor, Esq., and General Superintendent, T. 
McKissock, Esq., have granted many similar favors ; to the Iron 
Mountain Railroad, S. D. Barlow, Esq., General Superintendent, 
to whom we are equally indebted ; to the Saint Louis, Alton and 
Chicago Railroad, whose agent, J. L. Downs, Esq., has granted 
a free pass in all needful cases of charity ; and to the Terre 
Haute, Alton and St. Louis, and the Ohio and Mississippi 
Railroads, whose Presidents, Superintendents and Agents — W. R. 
Griswold, Esq., Col. H. C. Moore, F. M. Colburn, Esq., and IT. 
D. Bacon, Esq., — have always been most liberal and obliging in 
granting every reasonable request of this kind. Many favors of 
the same kind have also been extended to us by the Northern Line 
of Packets to Dubuque, Iowa, and the Illinois river packets, whose 
officers have always been most obliging and humane in aiding these 
poor people. About one-half of all the transportation furnished 
them has been procured without charge to the Government, cither 
by charity obtained in this manner, or by half fares paid by the 
Commission. 

Besides assisting the refugees in these several ways, the "West- 
ern Sanitary Commission has furnished large supplies of clothing — 
thousands of coats, pantaloons, under-clothing, women's dresses, 



9 

shawls, shoes, comforters and other articles of bedding-, to the more 
destitute. It has helped many families to commence housekeeping - , 
purchasing for them cooking-stoves and the most necessary articles 
of furniture, so that they might support themselves, and not become 
a charge to the Government. It has also established a school at 
Benton Barracks, for the children of the refugees, under Miss 
Samantha Monroe as teacher, where 140 children have received 
instruction since last June. 

In all these labors in behalf of the refugees in this city, the 
Commission has enjoyed the friendly sanction and active co-opera- 
tion of all our Department and District Commanders — Major Gen- 
erals Halleck, Curtis, Schofield, and Rosecrans, and Brigadier Gen- 
erals Fisk and Ewing — who have granted every reasonable request, 
in furnishing quarters aud authorizing the issue of fuel and rations 
to all who were unable to provide for themselves, and who must 
otherwise have suffered or perished. 

PERSECUTIONS AND SUFFERINGS OF THE REFUGEES. 

Of all the refugees who have applied to the Commission for 
assistance, not more than one-tenth have been able to read and write. 
They uniformly profess to be loyal to the Union, and many of them 
give touching accounts of the manner in Avhich they have been 
persecuted, driven from their homes by guerrillas, and their hus- 
bands murdered, sometimes before their eyes. The picture of their 
sufferings on arriving at St. Louis is often so sad and distressing 
as to draw tears from eyes not used to weep. On a single boat 
from the White river, in Arkansas, we have sometimes had an 
arrival of fifty families of refugees, old, decrepid men, sickly and 
feeble women, puny and diseased children, clothed in rags, lying- 
in bundles of miserable bedding, landed on the levee, without food 
or money to procure either food or a place of shelter for a single 
night. This happened one day last summer, towards evening, and 



10 

teams could not be had that night to convey them to Benton Bar- 
racks. The President of the Commission (Mr. Yeatman) went 
and provided them with bread and coffee for supper and breakfast, 
and they remained all night on the levee, sleeping there with no 
shelter but the starry sky. The next day a dozen Quartermasters' 
teams conveyed them to the refugee quarters at Benton Barracks; 
rations were procured for them ; the sick (being full half the 
number,) were taken to a ward of the general hospital, set apart 
for the purpose; and the Commission furnished shoes and clothing 
to the most naked and destitute, and articles of necessity for the 
hospital ward, with a matron and cook to assist in its management. 
As these people recovered their health, they were assisted with 
transportation to reach homes in the country, and directed to places 
of employment; thus making room for others subsequently arriving 
in the same condition. Many deaths, however, occur of the more 
feeble and sickly ; and sometimes whole families of orphans are 
left on our hands, by the death of their parents while they are 

here. 

REFUGEE ORPHANS. 

Since the 1st of August, 1864, forty refugee orphan children have 
been sent by the Commission to the Mission Free School, on Eighth 
street, established and supported by the Church of the Messiah, 
(Rev. Dr. Eliot,) in this city, and to the Protestant Orphan Asy- 
lum, on Seventh street. Here they are cared for; and, if sick, 
retained till they are restored to health ; instruction is given them 
in the daily school, and homes are provided for them, by indenture 
to suitable persons applying for them at these institutions. 

A touching incident occurred last summer, in the case of a 
family arriving from the White River country, in Arkansas. A 
mother and her children were landed on the levee, with their few 
articles of bedding ; and not being informed that she could be 
assisted at the Sanitary Rooms by the Superintendent of Refugees, 



11 

and being sick, she went, with her children, except the oldest boy, 
directly to Benton Barracks, leaving- him behind to take care of 
some bedding and household goods that she could not take with 
her, and telling liim to wait there for her return the next day, 
when she would come for him. The little fellow stayed all night 
on the levee with the goods, and all the next day, without food; 
but no mother came. At last, he was found by the Agents and 
President of the Commission, and the sad information given him 
that his mother was dead, having died the next morning after 
she reached Benton Barracks. He gave way at once to heart-broken 
sobs and tears, and would not be comforted. He, with the other 
children, was afterwards taken to the Mission Free School. Another 
touching case also occurred, in which a mother and eight children 
were sent to the refugee hospital at Benton Barracks, where they 
all died, except three of the children, who were also sent to the 
Mission Free School. 

Still another incident occurred, of much interest, in connection 
with the refugee orphans. A mother, from Arkansas, having two 
daughters, died at the Refugee Home, and left them on our hands. 
They were taken to the Mission Free School, and informed the 
Matron that they had an aunt in Wisconsin, who was in good 
circumstances, and would give them a home if they could get to 
her, but they did not know in what part of Wisconsin she lived. 
She had once visited their parents' home in Arkansas, and they 
remembered her name. The Secretary of the Commission sent an 
advertisement to the Wisconsin papers, which met the eyes of persons 
who knew their aunt, who was dead ; and the executor of the estate 
wrote that a farm worth $2,000 was left, to which these children 
were joint heirs with a nephew living on the farm. Transportation 
was immediately procured for them, a little money given to pay ex- 
penses on the way, and they were sent forward to their new home. 



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AN INSTANCE OF PERSECUTION. 

The following case of rebel persecution will afford an instance, 
out of thousands, of what these people often suffer in the South, 
and on their journey to a place of refuge. Last summer there 
came to the Eefugee Home, a mother, with her four little children, 
trying to reach her friends in Kentucky. She was an intelligent 
woman, of the better class of refugees. She said she had lived 
near Jacksonport, White Biver, Arkansas; that her husband owned 
a farm, well stocked with cattle, horses and provisions, and was in 
prosperous circumstances. He was known as a Union man, and 
often had to lie out in the woods — called in the South "the brash" 
— for weeks, to escape being conscripted in the rebel army or 
murdered. Sometimes the guerrillas would come and take away 
whatever suited them of his property — his horses, cattle, and corn, 
as they pleased, and even the bed-clothes from their beds, and their 
apparel. At last they caught him once at home, where he had 
come to see his little family, and spend a few days with them 
under his own roof. They called him out into his door-yard, told 
him he was a d — d traitor to the South, tore him away with vio- 
lent hands from his weeping wife and children, marched him a short 
distance down the road, and murdered him in cold blood, the report 
of their murderous weapons reaching his own doors. 

After this they returned and told his weeping widow that she 
had better pack up and go to Pilot Knob, where the Feds would 
take care of her, or they would burn her house over her head. 
Some days later, she yoked up the last ox team that had been left 
them, and putting her bedding and her children in the wagon, 
with their clothing and some of her husband's apparel that she 
wished to keep, she started for Pilot Knob, a distance of about 
two hundred miles. Traveling about fifteen miles a day, when she 
had been nearly a week upon the road, and her little stock of corn 



13 

meal and bacon was nearly exhausted, she was met by a band of 
rebel marauders, who stopped her in the road, and inquired where 
she was going. The poor woman, being much alarmed, answered 
that her husband was dead, and she was trying to go to her friends 
in Kentucky. 

"Well," said they, "what have you got here ?" and they began 
to rummage the wagon, from which they took her deceased hus- 
band's clothes, and her bed quilts, and the corn meal and bacon 
that was left, and then they unhitched the yoke of steers from 
the old wagon, and said to her — 

"We cannot allow you to take these * things into the Federal 
lines. You say your husband is dead ; how did he die ? Put to 
death for being a traitor ? G — d d — n him, served him right. 
And you are going to your friends in Kentucky ? Union people, 
eh ? Then you can travel on foot to Pilot Knob, and the Feds 
Ml take care of you there. They'll give you more blankets and 
clothes, and give you rations besides." 

The poor woman pleaded with her tears, and her little children 
crying around her, that they would leave her the team, and the 
bedding and the little food she had, and let her go on her way; 
but they jeered at her, mocked and laughed at her distress, and 
took her team and everything she had, and left her with her chil- 
dren crying on the road ; after which she pursued her way on foot 
Avith the little children to Pilot Knob, and received free passage by 
the Iron Mountain Railroad to St. Louis. 

On their arrival at the Refugee Home they were kindly cared 
for, and assisted to reach their friends in Kentucky, wnere the poor 
woman and her children, as we afterwards learned by letter, found 
her own father's house, and a welcome to the paternal home. 

Hundi'eds of instances like this, differing only in the kind and 
degree of persecution, might be narrated, but this must suffice. 



14 

REFUGEES AT PILOT KNOB. 

The number of Union refugees at this point has always been 
very large, ranging from one thousand to fifteen hundred persons, 
depending on aid from the Government in rations and places of 
shelter. During the month of July, the number of persons assisted 
in this manner was 1346, and in August, 1180. They are, with a 
few exceptions, poor people from southeast Missouri and Arkansas, 
ignorant, unable to read and write, accustomed to live in squalid 
wretchedness, the poor "white trash" of the South, a class from 
which the rebels have largely recruited their armies by conscription, 
and left their families, widowed and orphaned, to find their way to 
our lines to save themselves from starvation. They uniformly claim 
to be Union people, are willing enough to take the oath of alle- 
giance, but do not really understand what is essential to loyalty, or 
the merits of the conflict in which we are engaged. Nevertheless 
they are human beings ; and although in the lowest stage of civil- 
ization, they are thrown upon our charity, and with their children 
must be provided for, improved as much as possible, or be left to 
perish. Another and better class of them, however, have been faith- 
ful to the Government under every form of persecution, and are not 
only refugees but soldiers' families, who deserve all the sympathy 
and aid that can be given. No class have suffered more than these, 
the special objects of rebel atrocity and outrage, and none have 
been more loyal to their country's cause. 

The number of rations issued by the Government to these poor 
destitute people at Pilot Knob, during the month of August, of the 
present year, was 16,915, and the value of them, $1,691.50, which 
is a fair average of the charity of the Government at that post for 
nearly the whole period of the war. 

During the winter of 1863-4, the Western Sanitary Commission 
forwarded to Chaplain A. "Wright, then Superintendent of Refugees 



15 

at that post, large supplies of clothing and shoes for distribution, 
glazed window-sash for new refugee buildings, and axes for women 
to cut their own fuel (which many of them did that winter, carry- 
ing it from the woods on their own shoulders), and medicines for 
the sick, of whom there were very many at this post. 

Active service was also rendered in their behalf by Brigadier 
General Clinton B. Fisk, then commanding the District of Saint 
Louis, and his noble wife, who procured several hundred dollars' 
worth of material for clothing, as a donation from the merchants of 
Saint Louis, went down with it to Pilot Knob and attended to 
its distribution in person. It is impossible to estimate the value of 
the contributions sent to this post for these people, but it is known 
to have proved a most timely and providential relief to them. 

The number of colored refugees assisted at Pilot Knob, in the 
same way, during last July, was 160, and in August 125 ; the num- 
ber of rations issued to them in August was 1280, and the value, 
$128.00. Yet there were about as many colored refugees at Pilot 
Knob as whites, but they have been far more self supporting, and 
taken much better care of themselves. Last summer, colored refugee 
women, of their own accord, planted their door-yards with vegeta- 
bles, and kept them looking clean, and their children healthy, while 
the white refugees utterly neglected any such efforts to help them- 
selves, or improve their condition. Such has been the paralyzing 
effects upon the industry of the poor whites of the South by their 
contact with the system of slavery, rendering them a far less hope- 
ful class of our population than the negroes whom they so much 
despise, and affect to consider so much inferior to themselves. 

The following incidents, furnished by Chaplain A. Wright, 
Superintendent of Kefugees and Freedmen for this District, came 
under his observation at Pilot Knob, while he was stationed at 
that post : 



16 

St. Louis, Mo., September 9th, 1864. 
Kev. J. G. Forman, Secretary Western Sanitary Commission : 

Dear Sir. — If the following incidents are sufficiently interest- 
ing to be incorporated in your forthcoming pamphlet, they are at your 

service : 

Yours, truly, A. WRIGHT. 

" The winter of 1863-4 will long be remembered by the inhabitants 
of southeast Missouri as one of unparalleled severity. Cattle and horses 
by hundreds died of starvation, and it was heart-rending to see the poor 
beasts, that brought their miserable l-iders to the post of Pilot Knob for 
the rations allowed by Government, gnaw the fences and boards where 
they were tied, in a vain attempt to appease their hunger. Many 
dropped down in the road, and died in a few minutes. Not a pound of 
forage for beast, or food for man, could be bought at any price for hun- 
dreds of miles from that post. 

" On one of the coldest days of the winter, the widow of a soldier, 
who died shortly after Ms discharge, leaving a family of eight children, 
started for Pilot Knob, a distance of thirty miles, to obtain the pittance 
of food allowed her. Her ox-team, all she had left of fruits of years of 
toil, was nearly dead with starvation. With this team and an old wagon, 
with some of the younger children, she journeyed a few miles through 
the day, and camped in the woods at night. When she arrived at the post 
she was benumbed with cold. One of the oxen had died within ten miles 
of her destination, and, leaving the children — the youngest a nursing 
babe — a t a hut, she came forward on foot. It was enough to melt a heart 
of stone to hear her tale of woe. She could not leave her babe over 
night; and after getting some refreshment, I engaged a team to take her 
a part of the way home. She was a worthy woman, and had been driven 
from her home in Arkansas after her husband enlisted in the Union army. 

" Another, whose husband was a prisoner at Richmond for a long 
time, came to my office during the cold month of March, carrying an 
infant child, having walked thirteen miles and waded several streams, 



17 

for in that mountainous region the streams are not bridged. Her shoes 
were nearly worn from her feet, and her clothes to her knees were frozen. 
With bitter tears she told her tale, showed me letters from her husband, 
and when I asked her whether she did not wish her husband had never 
enlisted, she said, < No, 1 would rather sutler a hundred times as much 
as 1 have, than see my country overrun by such ruffians.' Noble wife 
of a noble husband ! 

" On another bitter day in January, three poor orphans were brought 
to my office, covered with rags, their feet frozen, for they were bare- 
footed, and terribly diseased for want of care. Their father had died in 
the service. The mother, after a lingering illness in a miserable cabin, 
with no care but such as her young children could give her, at last, 
after putting her hands on their heads and commending them to God, 
left them for her home in heaven. A neighbor, as poor as themselves, 
brought them to me, and after a few days, homes Avere procured for 
them. The oldest, a boy about twelve years of age, when a new pair 
of boots was presented to him by a benevolent gentleman, burst into 
tears and shook his head, saying, 'I can't take them.' 'Why?' he 
was asked. ' I can never pay for them,' was the reply. But when 
told they were a gift, his eyes sparkled with delight. A link in the 
chain of evidence required in order to get their pension, was wanting, 
and they, with many others, will never receive what is justly due them 
from Government." 

During the present month, (October, 1864,) the poor refugees 
of Pilot Knob have been peeled and scattered by the capture of 
that Post by the rebel General Sterling Price and his ruffian 
hordes, who, for a time, occupied it. Hundreds of refugees from 
that place who assisted Brigadier General Thomas Ewing to defend 
it, have been in this city applying to the Western Sanitary Com- 
mission for aid, stating that they had been obliged to leave their 
families — some of them secreted in the woods, others in rebel 
hands— and escape for their lives. On one day sixty men with 
it 



18 

their German pastor from Pilot Knob, came, some of them without 
jackets, or shoes, or a blanket, only half clothed, and received 
additions of clothing and some rations to subsist upon till they 
could go back and find their families*. Many families of women 
and children have also found their way to St. Louis during this 
month, and been provided by the Commission and the Government 
with shelter and rations, and by the Commission with clothing to 
protect their persons, and bedding for a covering at night. 

REFUGEES AT ROLLA, MISSOURI. 

During the war this military post has been a city of refuge 
for many refugees from southwest Missouri. An average of three 
hundred persons have been sheltered and rationed here by the 
Government all the time, and thousands have reached this post 
and passed on to St. Louis to scatter themselves through the free 
States of the west. In August there were two hundred families 
here drawing rations from the Government, and many sick. 

The refugees of this post wei'e visited by Mr. Yeatman, the 
President of the Commission, during the first summer, and finding 
many refugee children there, with no public school they could at- 
tend, the Commission on his return, established a school for them, 
with Mrs. H. F. Hoes as teacher, and subsequently employed 
Miss Alice F. Royce, from Wisconsin, as an assistant, the school 
having reached the number of one hundred and fifty pupils. This 
school has continued in successful operation ever since, and is doing 
an important work. 

A liberal supply of clothing for the destitute has also been sent 
to this place, and distributed, through a committee of ladies, to 
the most needy. Much assistance has been rendered in this by 



*Note .— Since the above was written , the Western Sanitary Commission has sent a good 
supply of clothing to Chaplain L. T. MeNeilly, Superintendent of Refugees at Pilot Knob, 
for distribution to the destitute at that place, the Post being now re-occupied by our troops. 



19 

the Superintendent of refugees at Rolla, Chaplain A. H. Tucker, 
and hy Surgeon M. P. Hanson, and Dr. Robinson. 

In a letter of Mr. Tucker to Rev. J. G. Forman, the Secretary 
of the Commission and Superintendent of Refugees, August 20th, 
1864, he says: 

"Refugees are constantly coming in from the southwest. There 
are now over two hundred destitute families here partly subsisted 
by Government. There is a great deal of sickness among them, 
and assistance by way of something nourishing for the sick to eat 
is much needed. The school books and clothing were duly 
received, and according to Mr. Yeatman's orders turned over to 
Dr. Hanson, and the Ladies' Refugee Aid Society.'* 

On the arrival of cold weather there will be great suffering 
at this post, unless there should be forwarded a generous supply 
of clothing for the destitute women and children, who have but 
little opportunity of earning anything, and no means with which 
to buy. 

REFUGEES AT SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI. 

At this distant outpost in southwest Missouri, thousands of 
refugees have received temporary aid from the Government in 
rations from the Commissary, and in clothing and money sent from 
the Commission to Chaplain Frederick H. Wines, formerly Super- 
intendent of these people at that post. They have not been 
encouraged to remain there, and have generally found their way 
in Government wagons to Rolla, and thence by cars to St. Louis, 
scattering themselves in the free States of the west, where they 
could And employment and a livelihood. Yet the number con- 
stantly at Springfield, recruited by new arrivals from the troubled 
regions of Arkansas, is always large. The preci.se number is not 
known, but is supposed to reach an average of several hundred. 



20 

A home arid school for orphan children, made such by the 
war, many of them refugees, has been established here by benev- 
olent ladies, in which the Hon. Mrs. John S. Phelps has taken an 
active part. 

Many of the families left destitute in southwest Missouri have 
lost their husbands and fathers in the service of the Government, 
for the southwest portion of the State had fewer slaves, and was 
more loyal than the slaveholding region along the Missouri river, 
and the Platte river country of western Missouri. 

The following extracts of letters from Chaplain Wines, will 

help to show the condition of the refugees of this part of the 

country. 

Springfield, Mo.. June 8th, 1804. 
James E. Yeatman, Esq, 

My Dear Sir: — I write to speak of the necessity that exists 
that the Western Sanitary Commission should do something for the 
multitudes of refugees who flock to this place from Arkansas and Texas. 
They come in by scores daily. Every train from the south comes loaded 
with them, and those who have wagons of their own, come in trains by 
themselves. One hundred wagon loads of them crossed the White river 
at Forsyth one week not long ago. 

These poor creatures are for the most part entirely destitute. The 
Government does nothing more for them than to keep them from starv- 
ing. They are furnished with half a soldier's ration each, of flour, 
bacon, beans, and hominy ; and when they die the Government provides 
coffins for them. Coffee and sugar are not furnished, because if they 
were, multitudes would draw rations to obtain these luxuries, who 
could support themselves very well without help. No clothing of any 
kind is given them. They are, however, attended gratuitously, and 
furnished with medicine in case of sickness. 

As an ordinary thing, refugees are not allowed to remain at tliis 
post, on account of the impossibility of transporting provisions for such 



21 

a multitude as would then be gathered together here, but are sent to 
sonic post upon a river or railroad. 

Oftentimes a little money would relieve a great deal of suffering, if 
judiciously expended. For instance, there have been many who could 
have made crops but could not purchase seed corn. The Government 
cannot furnish seed corn. For the want of a few dollars many have 
gone on, who would otherwise have become producers instead of consu- 
mers. Often in case of sickness, and especially of childbirth, a little 
money would procure necessary delicacies in the way of diet, which 
might save lives otherwise certain to be lost. Often a man or woman 
settles down to make a crop, but while the crop is growing cannot obtain 
food and clothing both. A little clothing furnished him would take him 
off the Government in point of dependence for food, which he could 
then earn by his own exertions. 

There is no fund here for the relief of such cases. Money is imper- 
atively needed for them. General Sanborn says that $50,000 would not 
be too much to relieve the distress of the community. Everything is 
scarce and high. 

Over $1,500 was sent from here to the Sanitary Fair. It has been 
the universal expectation that all this and more would be reiurned here 
for the relief of refugees. I write to enquire what the Commission 
proposes to do for us. 

-Hoping for an early reply, I am, with sentiments of sincere esteem, 
Your obedient servant, 

FEED. Hi WINES, 
Chaplain, and Superintendent of Refugees. 

In subsequent letters, Chaplain Wines says: "I thank you 
sincerely, in the name of the refugees, for your kindness in au- 
thorizing me to draw on you for $250 for their relief."-^me 
2ith, 1864. 



22 

" I wish to express to you my sincere thanks and the thanks 
of the sufferers at and around this post, for the relief which you 
have sent them in the shape of goods. * * The Western 

Sanitary Commission is doing a noble work, and every well-wisher 
of his country must wish it God-speed. * * * There is 
much sickness here, and the doctors frequently apply to me for 
delicacies for their indigent patients. * * * The supplies 
sent to the hospital were received and duly appreciated. I sup- 
pose that the surgeon has duly acknowledged them. They relieve 
a great deal of suffering. * * * The refugees coming 

to this post, are, almost without exception, soldiers' families, — the 
destitute wives and children of the U. S. Volunteers from the 
State of Arkansas. They have been driven from their homes ; 
they have been robbed of all which they once possessed ; they 
have been set down in our midst, homeless, friendless, and penni- 
less. Hundreds of them lie day and night by the roadside, 
exposed to the scorching sun and the pelting storm, without so 
much as a blanket to shield them from the sky. * 

I ask where upon earth can families be found whose necessities 
are so pressing as those of the naked and famishing wretches, who 
arrive here by hundreds with every Government train from the 
south ? They are not to be found." — August 2d, 1864. 

REFUGEES AT CAPE GIRARDEAU. 

Many refugees from southeast Missouri have also reached this 
post, and been aided with rations from the Government. Chap- 
lain N. N. Wood, D. D., has been the Superintendent there, 
and his report for July and August shows a monthly average of 
three hundred and forty persons assisted at that post. Many of 
them, also, have husbands and fathers in the U. S. Military ser- 
vice, or have been widowed and orphaned by the war. A liberal 



23 

supply oi' clothing- lias recently been sent by the Western Sanitary 
Commission to this place for these suffering people. 

REFUGEES AT LEAVENWORTH AND FORT SCOTT. 

The number of destitute Union refugees arriving at these two 
military posts has been very large, amounting to thousands, and 
Mr. J. R. Brown, Agent of the Western Sanitary Commission at 
Leavenworth, and Chaplain Charles Reynolds, at Fort Scott, have 
been indefatigable in their efforts to relieve these poor people, to 
find for them support, and to assist them on their way. Being 
without sufficient means of shelter, they have procured worn out 
and condemned tents from the Government to shelter them from 
the sun and storm, have issued to them clothing and sanitary stores, 
and procured Government rations for their subsistence. 

At Leavenworth Mr. Brown has established schools for the 
children of the colored and white refugees, and has several teach- 
ers; one of wdiom, Mrs. Nettie C. Constant, is supported in her 
work by this Commission, besides the general aid given to Mr. 
Brown in his great work. The Commission has sent to him over 
1,000 school books for his schools, many boxes of clothing, a large 
supply of medicines, and has appropriated $100 a month towards 
his work, besides several special appropriations. 

The following copies of letters from Messrs. Brown and Rey- 
nolds will give a good idea of what they are doing, the number 
of refugees needing assistance at these posts, and the extreme 
urgency of the demand for further supplies of clothing, especially 
this fall and winter : 

Leavenworth, August 22d, 1864. 
James E. Yeatman, Esq., President Western Sanitary Commission, 

Dear Sir: — I am in receipt of a communication from 
Chaplain Reynolds in charge of refugees and freedmen at Fort Scott 
a copy of which I enclose. Being pressed on every side for aid 



24 

that I am powerless to render, I wish to advise with you what 
coarse to pursue. Will you not confer with the Boston Mends 
through Edward L. Pierce, Esq., Internal Revenue Office, Boston, 
and, if possible, ascertain what disposition was made of the money 
raised while I was in Boston for this object, and if this contribu- 
tion has by any means been diverted from this channel, we must 
try again for more aid, as our calls are more and more pressing 
day by day. I have our Reception Home now in operation, and 
am daily receiving new comers and sending out those who are 
getting places for themselves. Try to help me through. 

Yours very respectfully, 

J. E. BKOWN. 



Fort Scott, August YIth, 1864. 
J. K. Brown, Esq., 

Dear Sir; — I am glad to hear that you have been east, 
pressing the claims of the thousands of poor refugees and freed- 
men who are being thrown upon our young State in a destitute 
and suffering condition. Between 1,500 and 2,000 are on their way 
from below, and will be at this post in a few days. Many of 
them will have to remain here some time, as it is hard to pro- 
cure transportation for them, and many of them will be compelled 
to stay on account of sickness. The thousand souls whom I re- 
ceived in June have mostly moved off in the country, and are now 
taking care of themselves. A few helpless families, however, 
remain, whom death is fast relieving. In Dr. Slocum I have a 
faithful co-worker, and am happy to learn that you are sending 
him a good supply of medicines, tents, «fcc. He is instant in 
season and out of season, and never hesitates to visit the pallet of 
sickness and distress. My time will be fully occupied as soon as the 
train gets in, and I must leave to yourself and others the duty of 
presenting the claims and wants of these poor creatures to the 



25 

benevolent and loyal people of the east. Could our Mends in 
the east, who are enjoying every comfort, but witness a tithe of 
the distress that yon and I have to meet with every day, they 
would give as they have never yet given to your " Commission," 
which strives to be a faithful almoner of their bounty. 

If possible come down yourself on the receipt of this, and let 
us have the benefit of your long experience, on the arrival of the 
train. 

It is time to be preparing for our colored schools for the winter, 
and your presence will greatly relieve and aid us. 

Your friend, 

CHAKLES REYNOLDS, 

'Id Kansas Cavalry, Acting Post Chaplain at Fort Scott. 

Leavenworth, August 24th, 1864. 

James E. Yeatman, Esq., President Western Sanitary Commission, 

Dear Sir: — I am happy to say that I have just received 
notice from Win. Endicott, Esq., of Boston, that he had forward- 
ed one thousand and fifteen dollars to you, — money raised for 
the benefit of freedmen and refugees now coming into Kansas. 
This very greatly relieves my mind, for I could see no way for 
me to go forward without it. I will draw on you from time to 
time as I am obliged to use it. I copy a letter just received 
from Fort Smith. The old tents have just come, and I shall get 
some of them forwarded to Fort Scott, as soon as possible, for the 
use of the immense train just now coming in. I still hear of 
more on the way up, and we are already more than full. I can- 
not see what we are to do with them, but the Lord will open 
the way, step by step. 

Yours respectfully, 

J. E. BROWN. 



26 

Eort Smith, Ark., August oth, 1864. 
J. R. Brown, 

Dear Sir: — The sanitary goods which you shipped to me 
about the last of June, arrived here on the 27th. 

it really does me good to see how grateful the sick and 
wounded soldiers and the destitute refugees seem to be when they 
receive reading matter and supplies from the Sanitary and Christian 
Commissions. I find a great amount of extreme destitution among 
the refugees, both white and colored. I am convinced that if I 
.should supply half the real wants, this wagon load would last but 
a short time. Please send at your earliest opportunity a full supply 
and general assortment of Sanitary and Christian Commission stores. 

Yours truly, 

WM. WILLSON, 
Chaplain Qlh Kansas Cavalry Volunteers. 

The following communication relates mostly to the colored refu- 
gees, sometimes called " contrabands," but coming under the same 
charity : 

Leavenworth, September 1st, 1864. 
James E. Yeatman, Esq., President Western Sanitary Commission : 

Dear Sir: Enclosed, you have my report of receipts and 
disbursements for August. We have our Freedmen's Home under 
full operation, have a school in one part of one of the buildings, 
and we can already see the benefit of our enterprise in many ways. 
Our plan, in short, is to take in the worn down and helpless, just 
up from below, suffering with all sorts of diseases, induced by 
every exposure by the way. Our wash-house is the first apartment 
to enter, where all filthy and infected clothing is removed, and a 
thorough cleansing takes place. The office is the next place, where 
names and particulars are recorded. Then the dining-room is 
opened, and wholesome food is furnished, and then rest is allowed, 



27 

and in one or two days, these tired, wretched beings look and ad 
like men, women and children. We advertise to furnish help of 
every kind desired, and when we have calls for it, we know just 
who are in condition to go out, and such are called into the office, 
and at first sight present a wiiolesome appearance, and are almost 
sure to please. Then again, persons wishing to hire help, conn; 
there expecting to pay a reasonable price, and put themselves under 
obligations which they would not feel if they had picked up their 
help in the street, or it had been urged on them by some poor, 
starved seeker for work. Then again, we can feed, doctor, teach, 
and shelter them, at less expense in this way than any other. 

I draw for $400.00 of the Boston fund, to fit up the establish- 
ment, and for $100.00, your monthly appropriation. After this, 1 
shall try to use only enough to keep the institution going. 
Yours, very respectfully, 

J. E. BROWN. 



Leavenworth, September \0th, 1864. 
Rev. J. G. Formax, Secretary Western Sanitary Commission : 

Respected Brother : 1 send you with this, copies of two let- 
ters, showing you a part of our work better than I can tell yon 
in my own language. * * * * 

All our hospitals are well filled, but not to that extent that we 
should expect, from the exposure of our soldiers, and the extreme 
hot weather of the present season. Our Freedmen's Home works 
to a charm. Oh, how I wish that we could establish others like 
it ! We must do so, if possible. Tents and relief for the refugees 
have been sent to Fort Scott. I find in Airs. Constant a most val- 
uable and agreeable co-worker, and she cannot fail to do good. 

Yours, very truly, 

J. R. BROWN. 



28 



Fort Scott, September 6th, 1864. 
J. R. Brown, Agent, Sanitary Commission: 

Dear Sir : Your agent, Mr. Want, whom you sent to aid 
us in providing' for the last train of refugees and freedmen from 
Fort Smith, is sick, and gone to his home at Mound City. I have 
been able to get transportation for but few of these people north 
as yet. I have now over 200 in camp, and they are in a most 
deplorable condition. A severe storm arose last evening, which 
continues this afternoon, with no prospect of abatement. Dr. Slo- 
cum and myself removed about twenty of the sick to a hospital tent 
in the Plaza, and I have a mother with her dying babe in my office. 
The rest are still m camp, in a condition next to death. Most of 
them have no shelter but what the trees afford, and their rations, 
which I distributed yesterday morning, are ruined. The river has 
risen over thirty feet and is still rising. I have communicated 
with them twice to-day, by boat, and have sent over bread for the 
living, and coffins for the dead. Your agent here has no funds, no 
tents, nor clothing. Do for heaven's sake send something along 
at once. 

Dr. S. is worked down and perfectly discoui'aged ; and I may 
add that I am so worked upon by seeing and hearing the cry of 
distress, without the ability to relieve, that I am almost ready with 
him to throw up my hands in despair. 

AVhen the storm clears away, the weather will, without doubt, 
be cold, and those poor creatures have not a dry garment nor a 
dry bed-cover. What the result will be, God only knows, but I 
fear that many will die. In my dilemma I sent this enclosed card 
to the paper to-day, and shall hope for a little immediate aid, as 
follows : 

" 1 would respectfully call upon the ladies of this post, to aid 
at once in relieving the sick women and children who are without 
shelter and nearly naked. Two poor creatures died during last 



29 

night's storm, and several others are very ill. Two sick children 
are entirely destitute of clothing. Aid, to be of avail, must be 
immediate. Send at once to my office in the Plaza. 

"CHAS. EEYNOLDS, 

•' Chaplain, Fort Scott." 

The Commission has recently received a letter from Mr. Brown, 
in which, after giving an account of the distribution of Sanitary 
stores to the army at Leavenworth, and the great need of further 
supplies at this time, he says : 

"We must call loudly now for clothing. Cool and stormy 
weather is upon us, and not a box of clothing has come. The 
enclosed copy of a letter from Fort Scott only tells the tale of 
many other places, and all are looking to me. What can I res- 
pond, and how husband the resources so as to make them last even 
till the settled cold weather arrives ?" 

Fort Scott, Kansas, September 25th, 18fi4. 
Bro. J. K. Brown, Agent Sanitary Commission. 

I send you a condensed account of my disbursements for 
the past season for freedmen and refugees. Number of women, 
968; children, 1,292. Comforts, 463; sheets, 220; skirts, 318; shirts, 
2,047; drawers, 397; dresses, 196; pairs shoes, 348; socks, 967. 
There are quite a number of women and children here that are 
very needy of clothing, and we have not a suit to give them. 
Many of them have died during the season, and many more of 
them are sick, and must die from exposure in coming up from 
Dixie. Since they landed here, for weeks they were without 
tents, until you sent them some from Leavenworth. Since that 
they have had comfortable quarters, but they must have clothing 
for the winter or perish with cold. 



30 

The above report does not embrace all that I have received 
from you and St. Louis, for there were hundreds of articles not 
worth recording-. 

Before I close I must tell you that many of these poor women 
and children have not a shirt to their backs, nor dresses to hide 
their nakedness. From the fact that everything is so high, it is 
not possible for them to clothe themselves, therefore we ask you to 
lay this distressed state of suffering before the friends of humanity, 
and tell them not to . weary in well doing, for in due time they 
shall reap if they faint not. 

Yours truly, 

T. T. INSLEY. 

REFUGEES AT VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI. 

In the spring of the present year the number of Union refugees 
arriving at Vicksburg, in extreme suffering, destitution, and sick- 
ness, from the interior of Mississippi was so great, that the agent 
of the Western Sanitary Commission, Mr. N. M. Mann, felt it to 
be an imperative necessity that efforts should be made for their 
relief. The co-operation of the military authorities was solicited 
by him, and with the aid of the Commission, a Refugee Home was 
opened at that post, which has been maintained in successful opera- 
tion to this time. An outfit of furniture, bedding, kitchen utensils. 
&c, was sent from the Commission, a Matron was provided, and 
a school for the refugee children opened in connection with the 
home, a teacher being also sent by the Commission for this ser- 
vice. The first teacher sent, was Miss G. D. Chapman, of Exe- 
ter, Maine, whose health failed after a few months of faithful 
service, and she was obliged to return home. Since she returned 
to Exeter, she has sent the following interesting letter, giving :in 
account of her experience in teaching the refugees : 



31 

Exeter, Maine, October 10th, 1864. 
J as. E. Ye atm an, Esq.: 

Dear Sir : I have not forgotten that I am to give you some 
account of my short term of labor in the Free School for Refugees 
at Vicksburg, but have been waiting to get stronger, and to decide 
about trying to finish, or, rather, continue a work but fairly well 
begun. After seven weeks of anxious toil, I had succeeded in 
awakening an interest in the school, and had the satisfaction 
of seeing a marked improvement, both mentally and morally. It' 
Southern temper is fast, the Southern intellect is very slow. I had 
no difficulty in managing those under my care, but they had not 
the slightest idea of order or discipline; and, like a boy we read 
of, must be told a thing twenty times, because nineteen would not 
make him remember. They thought me very strict, but did not 
attempt to disobey. 

We had just received our new books and crayons, with which 
the pupils were much pleased, and were preparing to do a great 
deal in the way of study, when unfortunately I was compelled by 
sickness to suspend operations. It was with much regret on my 
part ; and many of my scholars came daily to know when the school 
would begin again, and if they should bring me some peaches or 
apricots. I mention this because it was gratifying to see the inter- 
est manifested, and, also, that, in spite of my " strictness," I had 
their good will and regard. But these scholars were of a better 
class of people — not the high nor the low. They had attended the 
"pay schools," taught after the Southern fashion, which is neither 
thorough nor correct. 

My school commenced under difficulties. I had at first a room 
in the Refugee Home, used also for chapel and charnel house. Often 
two or three dead bodies were there at a time, and school must 
be suspended. The first day there were but five scholars, all in the 
A R C's' the next I went round conscripting, and impressed a 



32 

few more, but it was like taking - them to prison; they had never 
been to school ; their parents were deplorably ignorant and indo- 
lent, and must have been for many generations, to transmit such 
sluggish, inferior brains, as I found to deal with. Now and then, 
one of this low class had been to school a trifle, or their parents, 
knowing merely how to read somewhat, had taught them the alpha- 
bet at home ; but these cases were the exception, the l-ule was stu- 
pidity and ignorance. 

Here is a note made May 30th, 'CA : 

" Truly this is peculiar school-keeping. A refugee man, just 
arrived, has fallen asleep on a bench in one corner, and in another 
corner, on the floor, a man and child. Outside is a perfect Babel. 
One hundred have come in since Saturday, and we hear that four 
hundred more are coming between this and Wednesday. 

"There are usually half-a-dozen recruiting officers looking in at 
my window, though I do not see them. We are to have the vestry 
of a church for school-room soon, and I shall be glad. It is rather 
bordering on the awful here." 

A few days after we moved up to the vestry, and scholars about 
town began to come in. There was some feeling in regard to the " Free 
School, and young Secesh came to annoy my poor little refugee 
flock, and abuse their teacher by throwing brickbats and calling 
names. When the storm of missiles had abated, and it was safe to 
venture out, I quietly asked my scholars to keep their seats a few 
moments, while I stepped over to the Soldier's Home. Mr. Mann 
promptly sent a few of the boys out to my assistance, when, true 
to their Southern instinct, the army from the "Pay School-' "ske- 
daddled." While T was at dinner they came back, threw mud and 
sticks at my children, drove them out of the house, and tossed their 
books over the floor. Again the blue-coats went after them, and 
threatened them so hard that they troubled us no more. Incipient 
aristocracy takes the cue from the elders, and they would not lift a 



33 

finger to save from starvation the whole tribe of what they term 
"the nasty snuff-dippers.'"' 

My average number of scholars after moving up to the vestry, 
was from 35 to 40. At first I had two sessions a day, teaching 
six and seven hours, but as the weather grew hotter, reduced it 
to five; and finally, at Mrs. Plumincrs earnest request, to one 
session of four hours in the morning. Had the season been fa- 
vorable, I should have continued the five and six hour system. 
because there was so much to do. 

In regard to my sickness I will say a few words: JSTo one was 
ever more determined to be well than I was, and think I could 
have conquered the unfriendliness of the climate but for other 
adverse influences. \ was not proof against the soul-sickening 
wretchedness and misery everywhere before my eyes, while I was 
powerless to remove it or in any way lessen the suffering. At 
first my heart just ached all the time, and I would lie awake 
thinking of the pitiful beings ai'ound me, and trying to devise some 
plan for their relief. 

Hoping and believing that the right will soon prevail, and 
peace spread once more her white wings over this unhappy country 
so long crimsoned with brothers' blood, I remain, with respect, 
Yours sincerely, 

GKACE D. CHAPMAN. 



Recently the Commission has sent Miss Sarah E. M. Lovejoy, 
of Princeton, 111., a daughter of the late Hon. Owen Lovejoy, M. 
C, to take charge of the school, and by this time it is no doubt 
in successful operation again. The number of pupils has been 
sufficient to make a large school, and the work of educating and 
elevating the offspring of these poor people is deemed of the first 
importance, as they must hereafter blend with the higher and 
c 



34 

better civilization of the free States, or become the vagrants and 
pests of society. 

The following extracts from Mr. Mann's first report to the 
Commission will show under what circumstances and with what 
material this work was commenced at that post : 

"It is a fact that ought to be known, that many of these people 
came from the North to seek their fortunes in the Southern States 
before the outbreak of the rebellion, in which they have taken only 
a compulsory part, and now come back to us as to their friends and 
acquaintances. All the better part of those I have seen, are of this 
class. They come in here singly and in families from all parts of the 
Southwest, leaving everything behind, glad to escape with their 
lives. 

"Then there are hundreds of deserters from the rebel army of the 
more intelligent class of poor whites who never had any interest in 
the rebellion, and now, tired of the war, lay down their arms and 
return to allegiance. This is a class, however, that is easily disposed 
of, as there is good demand for male help, and all they need is a home 
like the one we have established, where they can have food and shelter 
until employed. 

"The greatest distress prevails among a class known as "poor 
white trash," who knowing nothing, are responsible for nothing, but 
suffer all. Their condition is even more deplorable than that of the 
negroes, for equally with them they have borne the curse of slavery 
without acquiring the habits of industry which the negroes have so 
severely learned. These are in a large proportion women and children, 
who have been literally driven by famine into our lines. Hardships 
and exposure bringing on desease, have heightened their calamities. 

"These people have crowded into every vacant hovel in town. I 
wish you could see a case which came to my notice yesterday, that 
painfully illustrates the condition of many of them. Just a few steps 



35 

above the Soldiers' Home I was called in by the post surgeon to see 
a case of want. The foul air as I entered the door was sickening in 
the extreme, and there, crowded into two small rooms, were twenty 
persons. Of these, three were able to stand; one little child was dead 
another dying, and the other fifteen sick upon the floor and on one 
dirty bed ! This morning the child, thank God ! is dead, and another 
that was born there last night is dead also. All these poor creatures 
had to eat until yesterday was hard bread and bacon. In another 
room I found a man lying upon a vile cot perfectly helpless, appar- 
ently in the last stages of pneumonia. He was very weak, but I 
learned from him that he was a native of Ohio, that his wife had 
died in that room a few days before, and all he had left was a little 
boy five years old. He was a fine looking man, and gave evidence, 
in all this filth and misery, of culture and of better days. By the 
kindness of the Medical Director, I had him removed to the hospital, 
and the little boy we took to our -'Home" where he is cared for. 
All this house full of sufferers that death does not take, will be taken 
there as soon as they can be removed. Their filth and wretchedness 
you may imagine. I cannot describe it. 

" This is one case. Perhaps an instance of equal suffering might 
be found in your own city, for the poor are everywhere. But you 
have your regular organizations for their relief. Here, save that the 
Government offers rations, they are literally left to die uncared for. 
"Women, with their own hands out of rubbish from the street, make 
boxes in which to coffin their babes ! I have instanced no isolated or 
exceptional case. The suffering is general and wide-spread. The nu- 
merous white refugees that followed in the wake of Sherman's return- 
ing expedition are for the most part still in the city, though they no 
longer lie in the streets or upon the open squares. They have crowded 
into the vacant houses sometimes with authority and sometimes 
without. There were a hundred and fifty on the Court House square 
for several week after the expedition returned. The last of these, some 



. 36 

twenty in number, wei-e taken into our "Home'" as soon as the house 
was opened. 

" I make these statements not because the recital of horrors is an 
agreeable task, for I would gladly be spared it, but that you and the 
good people of the North through you, may know something of the 
wants of those who have been the immediate sufferers from the war. It 
is impossible to remove this suffering ; the most we can do is to alleviate 
it. My plan is to found an extensive home, which shall be an asylum 
for those in want; where the homeless and helpless sick can be cared 
for ; where the destitute unemployed can wait for work, the Govern- 
ment and others needing help, as the institution becomes known, 
coming here to engage laborers. In this way, it seems to me, charity 
to these people will be most safely and wisely expended, and become 
an incentive to industry instead of idleness. Beyond the building and 
rations which the Government generously furnishes, the Home may 
be conducted very economically, the labor of the house being 
done in the main by the inmates themselves. 

" Ever since the establishment of a home for refugees was made 
certain, by the assignment of a building for the purpose, I have been 
indebted to Mrs. Harvey, the ' soldier's friend,' (and every sufferer's, 
too,) for many valuable suggestions. A nature too generous to en- 
dure the sight of human suffering without laboring for its relief, has 
led her to take a lively interest in a work so purely charitable, and 
much that is comfortable and homelike, in our institution may be 
accredited to her kindness and foresight. 

" Providence seems to have favored me in sending me a young 
man to be clerk and steward, and who combines in a remarkable 
manner with the manly virtues all the gentleness and delicacy of 
woman. He can write, or wash, or scour, or sew, or nurse with 
equal facility. Neatness and oi-der are already coming out of filth 
and chaos. Sixtv cots all clean and neat invite as many refugees from 



37 

the cold pavement or from filthy dens, first to cleanliness and then 
to sleep, and afterwards to invigorating - remunerative toil. 

" Who is there that will not give at least their approval to this 
work ? Let no charity be diverted from our noble army, but 
beyond all we do for them as the redeemers and defenders of 
our country, let us do something for these wretched beings who 
have thrown themselves upon our mercy, and who have paid, in 
suffering that can never be told, the penalties due to other and 
guiltier heads. 

"It is upon these poor whites that we are to depend largely 
in the future, if Democratic State governments are ever establish- 
ed in the south. Easily now in their hour of greatest need may 
they be attached to our flag and our Government by an exhibi- 
tion of our sympathy, and by Brining aid. The rich who have 
taken an interest in the rebellion, and having something to lose % 
have lost it, though they return to a formal allegiance, must, for 
the most part, be always alienated at heart, and can never be 
trusted. It is upon the common people, degraded as they now 
are, that we are chiefly to rely, and it is to them, when they 
come, with unmistakable evidences of loyalty, that we should 
extend our welcome and our sympathy." 

REFUGEES AT HELENA, ARKANSAS. 

There have been many destitute Union Refugees at this post, 
and important aid has been given to them through the humane 
labors of Brigadier General Buford and his lady, who for many 
months received and distributed large quantities of clothing sent 
them by the Western Sanitary Commission, and by friends in New 
England. The Commission has also provided a Refugee Home at 
this post in charge of Mrs. Sarah Coombs, a benevolent lady of 
Helena, and much good has been accomplished through her labors. 



38 



AID SENT TO NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. 

Large numbers of Union refugees have congregated at this 
point, and on application of Mrs. Mary E. Fogg, of the Refugee 
-Relief Society, the Commission forwarded a generous supply of 
clothing for distribution there in August and September of the 
present year. 

The following acknowledgment of this donation was received by 
the Agent of the Commission at Nashville : 

"Nashville, Tenn., June lid, 1864. 
"Mr. A. Clark, Agent Western Sanitary Commission, 

11 Dear Sir: — The following resolution was passed at a 
meeting of the Nashville Refugee Aid Society held to-day : 

"Resolved, That the thanks of the Nashville Refugee Aid Society 

be tendered to the Western Sanitary Commission, for its generous 

donation of clothing for the use of the unfortunate and destitute 

in our midst. 

"JOHN M. GANT, Secretary." 

AID SENT TO CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE. 

During the month of May an application was made by Rev. 
Henry Douglas, of Chattanooga, recommended by Major General 
W. T. Sherman, commanding the Western Division of the United 
States Army, for aid to the refugees and destitute people of that 
locality, and a donation of over two hundred barrels of flour, beef, 
and potatoes, was forwarded through the agent of the Commission 
at that post. 

REFUGEES AT LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS. 

During the past summer an urgent appeal has come from the 
Arkansas Relief Committee of Little Rock, and from the Governor 



39 

of that State for assistance to the destitute inhabitants and refugees, 
to which the Commission has been unable to respond, in conse- 
quence of its limited resources for this class of charities, and the 
great number to be assisted at Saint Louis and neighboring 
localities.* 

In a report of the above Committee to Governor Murphy, 
August 2d, they say : 

"The refugees now here are from the several counties of the 
State most devastated by a guerrilla warfare. We have heard of 
hundreds of starving families in the country which the committee 
are unable to reach, most of whom have been made thus desolate 
and destitute by the savage butchery of their natural protectors, 
for which they have no redress. A fearful responsibility rests 
somewhere, both by those who initiated the war which has pro- 
duced the present state of suffering, and those having the means 
of alleviating their distressed condition in the future and do it 
not. These walking skeletons, now fleeing from starvation and 
death, are not responsible for their fall from a good estate. Un- 
less provision is made speedily to enlarge the hand of charity, it 
is to be feared that a fall and winter famine will so much de- 
populate your State that little besides a bare territory will be left 
to govern. 

"After careful enquiry and investigation, we find that nearly, if 
not all the suffering and destitution is occasioned by, or is the result 
of, their being what is called " Union families, " or families of 
Union men. Very many of the families receiving aid are the 
wives and children of soldiers now engaged in the Union service, 
many of them natives of the soil, and others who have long been 
amongst our best adopted citizens." 

•Note. — Since the above was written , the Commission has sent a donation of several 
boxes, containing over 1500 yards of linsey-woolsey, cotton cloth, calico, check, flannel 
and shoes and stockings for one hundred persons. But this will by no means furnish an 
dequate relief to these poor people. 



40 

The following letter of the Governor of the State to the 
President of the Commission, shows still further the terrible des- 
titution that exists in this afflicted State : 

Executive Office, Little Rock, Ark., August 22d, 1864. 
James E. Yeatman, Esq., 

Dear Sir: — Enclosed I send you the report of the Refu- 
gee Committee. It gives a very imperfect conception of the extent 
of the destitution and suffering pervading the entire State. Since 
Steele's retreat, the army has occupied a few posts, hut all be- 
yond the pickets has been held at will by the rebels, and their 
conscription has swept the country up to the picket lines, accom- 
panied by the murder and pillage of all the loyal element outside 
of the pickets. Families, stripped of everything, have fled to the 
military posts, and to other States, for protection. Nothing, 
scarcely, has been raised for food, in the State. Unless those 
portions of our country which God has blessed with peace and 
security come at once to our aid, Arkansas will be a wilderness. 
May we not appeal to our brethren of other States, to come to 
our aid, and save us from destruction. * * 

With great respect, your friend, 

ISAAC MURPHY. 

VALUE OF AID GIVEN TO REFUGEES BY THE 
COMMISSION. 

The Commission has thus far expended in cash for these poor 
people, since the commencement of the war, $26,400, in the pur- 
chase of supplies for them, and $10,000 in clothing and material 
for clothing, outfit for refugee homes, &c. These expenditures 
have been made at St. Louis, Leavenworth and Fort Scott, Kan- 
sas, Springfield, Rolla, Pilot Knob, Cape Girardeau, Helena, Vicks- 
burg and Natchez. 



41 

Besides the above amount, the issue of the charity ration of 
the Government in St. Louis, ; .s made through the Commission, 
and since September 1st, 1803, about 15,000 rations have been 
issued, valued at $3,000. This does not include the issues of 
the Government rations at other points than St. Louis, some esti- 
mate of which has already been given, at such points as Pilot 
Knob, Cape Girardeau, &c, in another part of this report, 

OBSERVATIONS UPON THE REFUGEES. 

During the past summer the Commission was so fortunate as 
to have the voluntary aid of Mrs. Frances D. Gage, a noble and 
philanthropic lady, in a visit of observation to the freedmen and 
refugees along the Mississippi, to whose report it is indebted for 
much valuable information. 

Returning in August from her visit, her able and excellent 
report, relating mostly to the freedmen, contains the following 
observations upon the white refugees : 

"Of the Union Refugees, as I found them in June, nothing 
can be said but that their condition is deplorable. They were 
sick, suffering and dying, in hovels, sheds, barns, caves, tents and 
fields, helpless, and I might almost say, hopeless, with far less 
power to help themselves than the negro, and far less will to do 
so, yet everywhere, proud, arrogant and exacting. 

" Since that time the Commandant of the Post, at Vicksburg. 
has given one of the old hotels of the city, a large and commo- 
dious building, to be used as a Refugee Home. Into this those 
that have not been moved on to the north will be gathered. 

« The Union Refugee despises rule, order and authority, and 
boldly asserts, in many instances, that he would rather starve than 
work. It will require many experiments with such a people be- 
fore a folly satisfactory effect can be obtained. In the meantime 



42 

they must be looked upon as the victims of the institution of 
slavery, and degraded by its influence, and as such, their aged 
people, their invalids and children must be cared for. The ques- 
tion, what shall be done with the freedmen, he has answered for 
himself. Help him to a start, and protect him from the white 
man's injustice and cupidity, and he will sustain himself. 

" But the great question now is, what shall we do with the 
white refugees ? Time, and a careful selection of agents and teach- 
ers, doctors and nurses, will soon show us favorable results. Prac- 
tical common sense is a rare commodity, but we can illy afford to 
spare it from these great enterprises. One law and one rule of 
action must, as far as possible, be applied to all these cases. 
Charity to the orphaned, sick and aged ; labor and compensation 
for the well and strong ; reward for merit and punishment for 
crime. All this, dealt out with even handed justice, will soon 
bring harmony out of this terrible chaos. 

"As every success is but partial failure, so every failure is 
partial success ; and, while there is everywhere much to discourage 
the friends of freedom and humanity, there is more to give hope, 
impelling them with renewed energy to every good work. 

"Among all the causes which should lead us to rejoice in the 
downfall of slavery, none stands out to-day in bolder relief than 
the condition of the non-slavehokling population of the Confed- 
eracy. Truly the proclamation of emancipation that gave freedom to 
the slaves of the rebels, did a mightier work than the President or 
his Congress knew. It has broken the bonds of many thousands of 
the white race, scarcely less slaves, and too degraded and ignorant to 
feel their bonds. But now they begin to feel and to suffer, and 
suffering will induce thought, thought will stimulate to action, and 
action will very soon make them masters of themselves. When 
there are no more slaves to make honest labor a disgrace, labor, 



43 

the handmaid of virtue and prosperity will take her place of 
honor, even among- these." 

CONCLUSION. 

In concluding- this report, it is important to bring to view 
the fact that this work of receiving and providing for the poor 
and destitute Union refugees from southern tyranny and oppres- 
sion, is becoming one of great magnitude. A work of Christian 
mercy and charity, as well as of Christian civilization, must be 
done for them, or they must be left to perish at our very doors. 
Those who are at a distance from these scenes of suifering, can 
have no conception of the task of relieving this distress. There 
is no alternative to the humane and Christian heart but to help 
them in their sore and terrible need. The freedmen have already 
received much assistance, and associations for their relief extend 
all over the free States. Millions of dollars in supplies of cloth- 
ing and other necessaries, and in salaries of agents and teachers, 
has already been contributed and expended wisely in this noble 
work of assisting and elevating the emancipated bondman. The 
"Western Sanitary Commission has gladly and cheerfully taken part 
in these labors, among the earliest, and before any Freedmen's 
Relief Associations were formed. Seeing this work so well under 
way, it now has its attention powerfully drawn to the suffering 
condition of these poor white refugees of the south-west, to 
whom there is, as yet, no other association that gives its aid. 
The question now is: Who will care for the poor white refugee, 
equally the victim of a barbarous civilization with the oppressed 
slave, more helpless and sorrowing, and whom none seems to 
pity ? Who will give of his abundance to help take care of the 
poor orphans of these people, and to aid in fitting them for the 
better civilization of which they must hereafter form a part ? 
Who will help the poor widows and their children who come to 



44 

us in penury, in destitution and in rags, whose husbands have been 
murdered by the fiends who roam the sparsely settled regions of 
the south-west in guerrilla bands, and perpetrate their cruelties 
with impunity, burning widow's' houses over their heads, and 
driving them and their little ones from their miserable homes, to 
seek the Federal lines, and cast themselves upon the charities of 
the North? 

The Western Sanitary Commission has already expended largely 
more than it has received for the relief of freedmen and refugees, 
through private charity and from the Mississippi Valley Sanitary 
Fair, and has nothing with which to meet the increasing demands 
that are pressing upon it this fall, and that will press still more 
urgently as the winter approaches. It cannot properly use the 
money and supplies given for the soldiers of our western armies, 
and the sick and wounded in hospital, for this purpose, always 
aiming as it has to make these humanities of the war a distinct 
branch of its labors. In its present emergency, and the deficiency 
of its means for this work, it now confidently and urgently ap- 
peals to its friends and supporters everywhere, in New England, 
the Middle States and the great "West, for aid in money and 
clothing, ( material, or ready-made or second-hand, ) and shoes, and 
bedding, with which it may meet the demands of this great 
charity. Let this strong appeal be responded to by those to 
whom this Commission has never yet applied for help in vain, and 
the blessing of the poor, and of him that is ready to perish, shall 

be theirs. 

JAS. E. YEATMAN, 
C. S. GREELEY, 
GEORGE PARTRIDGE. 
J. B. JOHNSON, 
W. G. ELIOT, 

Western Sanitary Commission. 
J. G. FORMAN, Secretary, 

Chaplain and Supt. of Refugees. 

St. Louis, November 1st. 18(U. 



Note.— Donations f'>r the Refugees should be directed as follows: [James E. 
Yeatman, Pres. Western Sanitary Commission, St. Louis, Mo.,] and on the 

corner of the box or package should be added [From ■ (name of person 

and place,) Fon Refugees.] 



. TRR«Y~OF CONGRESS 

■Iff, 

013 744 «» ° ' 



